Orkney-born musician Merlyn Driver releases “Onto Something” today, the captivating first single from his highly anticipated debut solo album, It Was Also Sometimes Daylight, which is due out on October 10th. The track, accompanied by a video (watch below), offers a tantalising glimpse into a record shaped by a unique, nature-immersed upbringing and a deep-seated passion for intercultural musical exploration.
With “Onto Something,” Driver turns his artistic lens inward, crafting a sound that is both deeply personal and globally resonant. The song, loosely based on the American spiritual ‘Climbing High Mountains’, is elevated by the stirring fiddle of leading UK folk musician Owen Spafford.
The genesis of the track is as mystical as its sound. Driver recounts a dream encounter on the London Underground with a mysterious woman who handed him a disintegrating shawl:
“I first got to know ‘Climbing High Mountains’ through Sam Amidon’s beautiful version, which has a circular form without a chorus. One day, I had a dream in which I encountered a mysterious woman on the London Underground. She was wearing a shawl, which she handed to me. The shawl began disintegrating in my hands and, as it did, I found myself walking down the hill toward my childhood home as a melody started flitting about in my head. Somehow, I knew it was meant to be the ‘missing’
chorus of ‘Climbing High Mountains’, so I woke up and recorded the tune. The melody has since changed a bit, but I have the dream to thank for the idea.”
The accompanying video further enhances the song’s ethereal quality, as Driver delivers a compelling performance to a stunning coastal backdrop.
Driver is no stranger to ambitious, nature-focused projects. In 2022, he was the driving force behind the critically acclaimed Simmerdim album, Curlew Sounds. This multi-artist project, created in partnership with the RSPB, brought together a collection of new works and soundscapes inspired by the endangered Eurasian curlew, earning national airplay and five-star reviews.
This new single solidifies Merlyn Driver’s position as a vital voice in the contemporary folk scene. “Onto Something” is a powerful statement of intent, promising an album that is as innovative as it is deeply rooted in the natural world.
The album title stems from an offhand remark during a conversation about Merlyn’s childhood. While discussing his father, a zoologist and writer, someone asked how he had managed to write in a house without electricity. “I replied, ‘well – it was also sometimes daylight!’” A friend wrote the phrase down and later handed it to him: “Here’s your album title.”
“Somehow this title perfectly sums up a lot of feelings I have about my childhood,” says Merlyn. “It wasn’t always as easy or ‘idyllic’ as it might sound – and yet I was fortunate to grow up with nature on my doorstep in such a beautiful and wild place, with wide open skies and abundant curlews.”
Driver was raised on a smallholding in Orkney without mains electricity; his childhood was shaped by long hours spent outdoors, often to escape what could be a volatile home environment.
“Some of my favourite early memories involve tracking and studying wildlife in the fields around my childhood home. I didn’t attend the local school until my early teens and was able to spend a lot of time outdoors. Once the dark winter months set in though, my siblings and I had to make our own fun inside. One of my earliest musical memories involves us creating a homemade tape of surreal songs and imaginary sounds, including ‘a typewriter in depression’… We discovered that by simultaneously pressing ‘Record’ while holding the Pause button halfway down, we could change the recording speed and distort our voices.”
That sense of instinctive, lo-fi creativity runs throughout the album. Guests on the album include Owen Spafford (fiddle); Nathan Riki Thomson (double bass); Francesca Ter-Berg (cello); and various creatures from the natural world, including curlews, greenshank, blackbirds, wood sandpipers, barnacle geese, and multiple species of frogs and toads.
Album pre-order: https://merlyndriver.bandcamp.com/album/it-was-also-sometimes-daylight
Tour dates (It Was Also Sometimes Daylight – UK Nature Tour):
20/09 RSPB Dungeness
24/09 SOAS Concert Series (London)
26/09 RSPB Minsmere
27/09 RSPB Sandwell (Birmingham)
28/09 Cafe No 9 (Sheffield)
30/09 RSPB Conwy
01/10 RSPB South Stack (Angelsey)
02/10 RSPB Leighton Moss
04/10 Hunger Hill Farm (Haweswater)
07/10 Dundreggan Rewilding Centre
08/10 RSPB Loch Garten
11/10 Pier Arts Centre (Orkney)
17/10 Cley Marshes (Norfolk Wildlife Trust)